Charade
by FlamingWolf
Summary: My take on the ever popular "if Bob had not made it back in time to halt the wedding...". Mature content. Shame they don't have 'action' as a genre any more...
1. A Talk Before Bed

Something was off. The wedding had been wonderful, she had been radiant, and all of Mainframe had cheered and expressed their congratulations. She had tentatively suggested going somewhere else, such as the supercomputer, for their honeymoon cycle. She had always secretly suspected that Bob had resented being assigned to Mainframe, and that he wanted to go home. Bob had turned her down, saying that they had all tried so hard to come home that they should enjoy the town in peace before the next big emergency. Like Matrix, he seemed utterly convinced that it would come.

But something was off. She could read Bob fairly well after all this time, and something had been bugging her for most of the day, nagging at her through her happiness. Something foreign had flickered across his features when she had walked towards him down the aisle, something that had confused her. She wrote it off as possessiveness- after all, he was finally getting a claim on her. Somewhere in the back of her mind- the part that wondered if she was making a mistake, acting too rashly- she had thought that he seemed… unusual. There had been something more gloating than genuinely happy, as if he had beaten the other…him… in a competition. In winning her.

Dot did not appreciate being a prize. And that was not like Bob at all.

So now she stood in the middle of the mid-range expensive hotel in one of the better commercial sectors of Mainframe, still garbed in her wedding gown. It was her wedding night, and yet her passion was overshadowed by the instincts that had kept her alive while she was being hunted through the data paths of her own city by a viral. She had her back to the bathroom, to which Bob had sheepishly retired, and was carefully pouring wine into flutes. She heard his footsteps. Something about them seemed heavy, more ponderous than she was used to. Carefully corking the bottle, she told her fears to take a hike and said in a soft, persuasive voice,

"I'd like to just talk for a little while, if you don't mind. We have a lot of unsolved issues between us."

"Indeed we do, my little love," A deep, mocking voice said from behind her. The voice of her most dreaded enemy. Dot dropped the bottle, spinning to face the virus that had hunted her since before the last two upgrades. The bottle shattered, wine splashing across her side and back, staining the long hem. Megabyte walked slowly towards her, then stopped, his head tilted to the side as he regarded her with one eye. "A pity," He said. "I did so like that dress."

"I think I've found the first topic of conversation. What are you doing in here? And how?"

"Don't you see, my dearest? The web changed me beyond all recognition. It even changed my code." The wide viral grin increased. Dot shoved the part of her mind that was panicking out of the way to babble harmlessly in a corner.

"How- I see. A Trojan virus. Where in the net did you get Bob's code?"

"Web actually, my dear. From the web creature he used to ride. You'd be surprised how many I can do now." With that, Dot found herself staring across the room at AndrAIa- minus the trident and arm guards. Something about that fact registered as important, and Dot filed it for later. Her mind working at its top processing speed, Dot said in her most disinterested tone,

"You came through in the wake of Hex's demise. Can you do her as well?"

"Actually, a virus cannot disguise itself as another virus. It's impractical, and anti-viral programs still attack you. I'm disappointed, Dot, I expected more dramatics." Megabyte slowly became himself again.

"I'm processing internally, not for your benefit. Stop with the endearments- I'm logged as wed to Bob, not to you. Why are you here? Why didn't you just delete us and get on with it?"

The virus abruptly lunged, knocking her back over the table and pinning her, his sharp rows of fangs inches from her nose. She couldn't help the expression of disgust, not only at his proximity but at the cold, wet wine soaking through the back of the dress.

"I came back for my own amusement and for my own revenge, Dot. The easiest path I could think of was through you. You always thought of yourself as the logical one, the one with the plan. But I know exactly how much your emotions rule you, Dot. More so than that impetuous fool that was sent here to delete me."

"You were a malign virus, Megabyte. He gave you a chance. He could have deleted you. He could have called for backup and had three battalions of guardians here in a nano. As long as you didn't spread out of your sector, he tolerated your presence. You made it personal by attacking us. We merely removed a threat to our codes. Even at the last, my brother was willing to let you live if you were decontaminated."

"I was following my format."

"And we were following ours."

Megabyte slowly got off her. Dot rose, her skin crawling with the crimson stain. They stared at each other across the room.

"If you delete or infect me, you loose your element of surprise." Dot said, her voice shaking with suppressed rage. "You started the little charade- you have to continue through with it. But I will be alert now, Megabyte. I will be watching everything you do around my family. And Bob will come back here once his code has been restored."

"Sacrificing yourself to me to save them? How typical of you. But you can't warn them. No one will believe you if you do. You are now bound to my charade as well. Bob will find you wed to the other him. You chose another. He will be devastated. Watching him watching us will make my revenge on the two of you complete. And I will find ways to extract the code of the others, one by one. So starting tomorrow, it will be business as usual. You work at the diner, I patrol the system looking for web or viral threat. And we stalemate until one of us can tip the scales. You have-" He paused, and his face took on an expression of dark satisfaction. "Nine cycles."

Dot's eyes widened at the implication, and in a sickened voice, she asked, "Why bother?"

"Think of it as your most dangerous game, Dot. Nine cycles to think of a way to save them. If at the end of nine cycles I have not exacted my revenge, I will leave the system peaceably- and you will give birth to my heir. Everyone will know you tell the truth once your child is identified as viral- but they are safe from me. If I extract my revenge before then, I will be satisfied, and you can have an anti-viral program run to free you of my code, and delete the offspring before it is fully functioning."

Dot sank into the hotel chair, her eyes wide, her face twisted with disgust. A victorious expression filled the face of the viral as he surveyed the first masterwork of his plan for vengeance. "Don't worry, virals are notoriously prolific. It need only be once. Or perhaps you'd prefer…" He once more slowly became Bob, still dressed in the guardian dress uniform.

"No. At least be honest about it," Dot said, her emotions warring between disgust, guilt, and a deletion rage.

"But Dot, this is all I can give you tonight," Megabob said, his voice modulated into the sincere, worried tone that she had come to associate with gentleness, protection… her personal Guardian. Anguish won the war for control over her face, and with a most un-Bob laugh, the Trojan virus lifted his bride and carried her towards the bed. As he laid her down and signaled the lights off, Dot went completely limp.

_Don't fight him. Don't react. It's the only way to keep him from winning…_


	2. Interlude in the Supercomputer

Bob became aware of quiet voices somewhere near him. He recognized the smell of the room he was in without even opening his eyes- his stupidity had certainly earned him his fair share of extended stays in the medical lab of the supercomputer back in his days training as a guardian. In a quiet lassitude, he listened to a guardian informing Turbo that his code wasn't the one on file at the supercomputer. Turbo's quiet reply that he was obviously the copy resounded through his being. Glitch hummed on his arm, a familiar, warm presence. Bob opened his eyes and sat up. There were sounds of guilty movement through the room. He ignored them to address his oldest partner.

"Why don't you go to him?" Bob asked Glitch bitterly. "He's the real one."

To everyone else in the room, it sounded merely as if Glitch was squeaking and making metallic sounds- keytools were only understood by their chosen guardian. Bob heard, "You've grown and matured. You have experiences the other doesn't. You are more real than any copy should be."

"But if he's-"

"It doesn't matter. Even if you're a copy, you feel more right than he does."

The keytool whirred and settled back into place on his arm. Bob looked around the room for the first time. "Hey, is there any way I could get Glitch fixed?"

"I'll be complete when you are," Glitch answered him before the guardians could.

"What do you mean, I'm incomplete?" Bob asked. His mind suddenly filled with memories of Daemon's seductive whispering, _You are the only truly complete Guardian._ Suddenly, Bob was feeling very unreal.

"Your code. You lost some in the web. The skips and absences are reading in such a way as to make it look as if your code was complete but different. I don't know where the missing code is."

The guardians were watching this exchange in some trepidation. Turbo cleared his throat. "Bob, son, I have something you need to know."

Bob looked up. His own throat felt very constricted and he had a sick feeling about whatever news there was from Mainframe. He knew it was Mainframe. Nothing else could make him feel this much like-

-Like receiving bad news from home. Mainframe was home now, in a way the supercomputer never could be again.

"Yeah?" He forced past the sudden lump.

"Dot. She married the other one."

Bob closed his eyes as his world shattered. He heard the others quietly and discreetly leaving the room, except for Turbo, who came over and sat next to him on the medical cot. After a few nanos, Bob opened his eyes again, and his old friend was staggered by the amount of pain he could read in Bob's face. Bob's lips tensed for a moment as he refused to let the tears flow, and when his lips relaxed, he said neutrally,

"I guess that's it, then. Well, since I can't go back to Mainframe, since they have a permanently assigned guardian…" He stopped. He didn't want to be assigned to another system.

"Turbo- please, I have no where to go. I know I'm a copy, I know my code isn't on file anywhere, and that's why I can't Boot, but- I can still be useful. Please. Glitch knows. Glitch is staying with me. Just- give me a job training the cadets. If nothing else, I can teach a web-survival course. And the basic games- the ones where the cadets don't actually enter the cube. You always said I was innovative."

"Done. Anything else?"

"A workstation and access to scans of the original 452 code and my code. If I can figure out what was corrupted where, maybe I can figure out how to fix Glitch."

Turbo looked at him, his face unreadable. Bob slammed his fist on the edge of the bed. "I'm not going to try to impersonate him, but I'm not going to give up my memory! I've already lost, user cursor it! I just want to know how I am different, so I can reconcile myself to being this new code. And Glitch can't be fixed until I find out where the differences in my file are so that I can program that into his recognition!"

He flickered for a moment. He was still very drained, despite the fact that his energy supply was once more that of a sprite and no longer dependant on Glitch's battery life. Nearly fragmenting yourself did that to a sprite. Turbo became alarmed.

"Alright, alright, the workstation is yours! Just- get some rest, Bob. And… welcome home."

"Yeah," Bob said, lying down and rolling away to face the wall. "Home."


	3. Suspicions

AndrAIa walked into the diner, listening and nodding occasionally at Enzo's steady stream of chatter. After he had enumerated one more time all the fun things he was going to do in the supercomputer, he said quietly,

"And I'm going to go make sure Bob is OK. We haven't heard anything since he was taken out in the ambulance."

AndrAIa was looking directly at Dot as Enzo said this. The other woman was working as diligently as ever, but there was something drawn about her. When Enzo mentioned the other Bob, Dot visibly- and there was no other word for it- flinched. Troubled, she continued to watch the woman, until Bob caught her eyes. AndrAIa looked away. There was something that had been making her uneasy, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was. Casually, she strolled past where Bob and Enzo were sharing a bowl of chips, and leaned against Matrix's side, kissing him lightly on the cheek. He leaned down and returned the greeting, until Dot cleared her throat and jerked her head towards the adolescent Enzo, who was watching with interest. AndrAIa nodded and led Matrix to the other side of the bar.

"Smooth," He complimented her, reaching for her hips.

"Matrix," She said, and her tone warned him enough that he redirected his hands to catch hers and lead her to a table. He lifted an eyebrow at her. She leaned across the table and he leaned in to meet her. She opened a read-file of the menu, and to anyone watching, they were holding a PDA behind it. Quietly, she murmured behind the menu,

"Hasn't Dot seemed kind of tense to you, recently?"

"She's always tense. Why?"

"I don't know. She never mentions the other Bob, she's always working, she never seems to initiate any contact with this Bob, and she never lets him out of her sight. Not even into the games with you and Enzo. For a while before the wedding, she was too tired to too busy for the games and left that to you boys or you, me, and Bob."

"Newly weds. They always want to be together. Look at us."

"Yeah, but she's even tense around him, and, like I said, never touches him. She used to at least take his hand."

"Putting it like that, it sounds ominous, but you might just be trying to process random bits of data." Matrix said. AndrAIa glared, and he held up his hands in surrender. "I'll ask her, or have Mouse do it."

"Thanks, lover," She said, leaning across the table to really kiss him, and then dismissing the menu. They stood up and came back around the bar, just in time to hear Enzo ask,

"Can we go jet-balling? Please Bob!"

"In a while," Dot answered. "I'm not done with my work yet."

"It could be just me and Bob," Enzo said, pleadingly. "We never do anything together anymore, and you do have soooo much business to attend to."

"You never want to do anything with me," Dot said in a voice that was meant to be joking, but everyone in the room could hear the strain this time.

"Jealous, Dot?" Bob teased. Dot looked up at him, and for a moment there was something strange in her expression.

"Of course not, but why don't you take Matrix with you. He needs some fresh air, and it would give me a chance to call Mouse over for some girl time with AndrAIa and I."

AndrAIa, her suspicions growing, turned to look at Bob, who shrugged and said, "Sure, coming Matrix?"

She elbowed Matrix, who was about to refuse, and he changed his answer to, "Sure, we haven't really done much together, either."

"Alphanumeric!" Enzo cheered and ran for the door. Matrix started to unstrap his gun to leave behind (since they were going to a place where children were known to frequent), but Dot interrupted him with,

"Please don't leave that around here where my customers can see it."

Matrix blinked, then reattached it to his leg, ostentatiously setting the safe on it and double-buckling it to avoid trouble down the line. The three men left, and Dot quickly opened a window to Mouse, who answered blinking and disheveled.

"Sugar, it's the middle of standby mode here."

"Sorry, Mouse. Go back to sleep. We just wanted to call you for a get together. I didn't know what time it was there."

"I wasn't sleeping." Mouse winked and terminated the call. AndrAIa giggled, then noticed the expression Dot wore. She seemed kind of- sad.

"Dot?" AndrAIa moved quickly to sit in the other side of the booth before Dot could call up her workscreens again. Dot looked away, and AndrAIa said quietly,

"Marriage problems?"

"You'd think I was random if I told you," Dot answered.

"Come on, it's only been two cycles! Has the glow already worn off?"

"I… think I rushed into things." Suddenly, Dot seemed seized by a manic energy, and she reached across the table to take AndrAIa's hand. "Please, I need to tell someone. Please, don't think I'm random."

"I don't. Calm down," AndrAIa was fast becoming alarmed. Dot's eyes were frantic.

"AndrAIa, he's not the man I thought he was! You were right all along. Glitch-Bob is the real Bob. He lost some of his code in the web, and it was assimilated." Dot sat back, her energy leaving in an instant. "You think I'm random, don't you?"

"No, but we need to think about this." AndrAIa wasn't sure what to think. "So everyone else thinks that this is Bob. System scans show him to be Bob because the coding is identical- except for the fact that it's missing some and filled in with something else. But since that's true of both Bobs, we all took the one that looked like the original at face value."

Dot nodded, her face relieved.

"So no one would believe you if you told them, except for one game sprite who is rather cynical and suspicious to begin with, so you were stuck with him." AndrAIa leaned across the table. "Does he think he's Bob, or is he somehow threatening you and deliberately messing with the rest of us?"

"He's not threatening me, AndrAIa. He's threatening all of Mainframe. And even if the two of us took him down, we would be arrested and confined, or possibly deleted, for erasing a guardian. We need him to somehow betray himself."

"A beef with Mainframe, or a beef with the guardians?"

"DrAIa, it's Megabyte."

"Megabyte?" AndrAIa felt the energy leave her face. "Dot… but, how?"

"The web changed him. He's a Trojan."

AndrAIa's lips formed a scathing obscenity. Still pale, she looked at Dot and said,

"And is he…?"

Dot knew what she was trying to ask. "Once. Once was enough. He just needs an offspring that the system will recognize as sprite and not delete. And he keeps as much of an eye on me as I do on him. Now you know why I refuse to let anyone be alone in his presence. Since he's Trojan…"

"Dot, we need to get that thing out of you."

"How? A viral scan won't pick it up, people would want to know why I was having Bob's baby erased- really suspicious, don't you think?-, and, again, no one would believe me."

AndrAIa's face hardened. "Next game. We get separated on purpose, we claim that you were attacked by a game sprite- which would be the truth- and as soon as the cube lifts, we get you medical."

"Either he'd just impregnate me again, or I'd have to go into hiding, leaving him free to try to separate and destroy the rest of us."

AndrAIa swore again, out loud this time, earning her a strange look from a passing binome.

"AndrAIa, we have to think of something, or we just need to bide our time until my little viral is born. No one would be able to doubt me then. In the meantime, you need to mask what you know. If he knows you know… well, all our chances for survival drop drastically." Dot begged. "Now that there's two of us, I'm sure we can think of something."

"Sure, but I'd better not be here when he gets back." AndrAIa said. Impulsively, she leaned down to give her sister-in-law a hug. "We'll make it right. Somehow, we'll get rid of him, get rid of it, and get our Bob back home where he belongs. Maybe it's good thing that he's changed so much- when he comes home, he won't visually remind you of all of this."

**Meanwhile**

In the supercomputer, Bob carefully placed his energy shake on the table beside him. It was very hard to actually do so, since his eyes were so tired that he nearly set the drink on the empty air beside the table. He leaned close to the vid screen, reading each number as it scrolled in front of him. In a higher-energy being, the code repeated itself in an endless loop to keep it stable to generate the sprite or binome in question. He had finally isolated the beginning and end of the loops in both his own code and the code of the original.

"Save file on these cuts." He commanded, and the workstation complied. He leaned back, scratching his head, then rubbing a hand across his eyes. He looked like bad output- he had ever since he had begun to loose energy more than two cycles ago when he had been merged with Glitch, who was now vibrating in alarm at his condition.

"Don't worry, old friend. I just got to the easy part." He assured the keytool. "Data program, start paste and analyze sequence. Highlight the first start of the discrepancy between these codes and wake me when you find it."

Now that an answer was near to hand, he felt better than he had in fifteen cycles. He sat up, tossed the remains of the shake in the recycle bin, and leaned back in the chair, propping his feet on the desk while he went into shut down mode.

**In Dot's Diner**

Dot closed her data storage unit, making sure the encryption was set. She was angry, rebellious, and wanted to pick a fight, but she knew that she couldn't if she and AndrAIa were to get anything done. She doubted her file would end with a happily ever after, but she could at least make sure that everyone else in Mainframe got theirs. The guys walked in, chattering away about who had made what awesome catch in the game, and looked surprised to see her sitting at the table alone, waiting for them.

"Ah, Dot," Megabob said, his voice carrying the right inflection of surprise and chagrin. "We didn't expect you to be done with work yet. So you girls really did have a good time?"

"Well, Mouse couldn't make it. AndrAIa and I talked for a while, but she decided that she was going back to their apartment to wait for Matrix. Says she has a little surprise for him."

Matrix looked a little bit flustered to the amusement of the others, and he said his good-byes with the air of a man expecting to get some when he got home. Dot and Megabob walked Enzo back to the small flat he now shared with the null-Wellman, then left for their own place. Out of sight of the others, Megabob took her arm in a nearly painful grip. "So what did you girls talk about?"

"Nothing to upset the status quo, Megabyte. If you don't let go of my arm, you're going to claw it, and think of how much domestic abuse would upset the children."

"I'm warning you, Dot. The first sign that anyone gets suspicious, I take that obnoxious little boy's code and make _him_ act suspicious. It would be amusing to watch Matrix blow a hole through the head of a child, and then watch all of his high morality slide in a downward spiral of randomness. Making him random would be the highlight of this little experiment."

"Come along, dearheart, all of the neighbors are starting to wonder what we could possibly be discussing so tersely."

"Clever girl," Megabob answered, and towed her inside.


	4. The Critical Moment

**Matrix's Apartment**

"DrAIa?" Matrix called, coming into the apartment and starting to unbuckle his gun holster as he carefully locked the apartment. He heard movement behind him and began to turn, with a smile, only to find the tines of a trident nearly up his nose.

"AndrAIa, what's going on?" He asked, completely baffled.

"What story did you tell me the first time we met in the game?" She asked, her face deadly serious.

"AndrAIa, what-"

"What story?" She persisted, and despite himself, he found his mind ranging back over the cycles, looking for the answer.

"Umm… I said I was a guardian from the net, and we sailed around in that fish submarine thing. We got to talking, I was trying to impress you, and I told you the story about Booting as a damsel, except I claimed it was Bob who had done so."

She gave a sigh of relief and snapped the trident closed, reattaching it to her hip. She walked across the room and kissed him deeply, the reception he had been expecting in the first place. "Sorry, lover. That was entirely necessary. I got Dot to talk."

"And…?" Matrix was thoroughly confused.

"She doesn't want to cause a mass panic so she's not announcing it publically, but there's a Trojan virus loose in the system. So far it hasn't done anything, but she's expecting trouble at any moment."

"Oh. So, of course, you were checking to make sure I was clean. And me." Then the data processed. "A Trojan? In Mainframe?" It was Matrix's turn to swear. Then he looked at her.

"Go ahead." She spread her hands.

"What did Megabyte tell us that time-"

"Too public, choose another."

"Who was the leader of the sprites in the system where the spectrals were fighting the sprites?"

"Captain Robert Cursor. His uniform was red and his hair resembled Guardian Bob."

Matrix pulled her close, and she snuggled into his chest. "I don't think anyone should go in groups of less than three. If there's only two people, and one of them is masquerading…" She noted.

"Right," He answered. "Has she at least told Bob?"

"He knows." AndrAIa was very hard put to keep her voice neutral. Matrix held her, thinking, and suddenly sat upright, nearly dumping her.

"Wait, there were two Bobs! What if-"

"It's been active since the other Bob went to the Supercomputer for medical treatment. I called Turbo, and Bob has been constantly in the presence of other guardians or logged onto a guardian workstation." She paused. "He's been working non-stop to compare his code to the code that the guardians have on record looking to see where the difference is. He wants to prove himself and come home. And he has Glitch, besides."

Matrix felt a wave of guilt. And yet, despite that guilt, it never occurred to him to think of the Bob that looked like the original as a possible suspect.

**One Cycles Later- Three Cycles After the Wedding**

Dot had definitely noticed that she was putting on a little thickness around her midsection. It was not so pronounced that anyone had commented, but she was beginning to start to feel like she was running out of time. Megabyte had finally convinced himself that she was holding to her end of the bargain. He was biding his own time and working on several plans of action for his vengeance on Matrix, Mouse, AndrAIa, and the pirates.

She was desperate. On Cecil's next second off, she took his place himself rather than calling in a backup. She was working behind the counter, chopping bytes for salsa to go with the chips. Dot refused to have anything in her diner that was pre-programmed. AndrAIa was sitting at the bar- with no one else to turn to, the women had become very close in the last cycle. The two women were talking as the game cube left, and Megabob walked in with Matrix and Enzo. The impersonator slapped a high five with Matrix and laid his hand on Enzo's shoulder in a seeming spontaneous moment of affection. The knowledge that he was playing with them the way he had played with her, working up their friendship and trust while plotting their erasure, was suddenly too much for the sprite to handle. Without thinking, she lunged, using the edge of the counter as a springboard to give herself more momentum.

Her body crashed into Megabob's. Caught entirely off guard and without his viral strength to aid him in his current form, they hit the floor, and slid headfirst out the door. Fighting disorientation from the impact, she rammed the knife into Megabob's stomach and jerked upwards.

There was a commotion from behind her. She was aware of Enzo and Matrix shouting her name, and AndrAIa placing herself between her two brothers, holding them off. Megabob was entirely uncertain of whether to stay in character or to kill her here and now.

"You can't heal in this form, virus. AndrAIa knows what you are. I suggest you cut and run." She growled. "It's that or I delete you right now, and you'll die as a guardian, with all of your vengeance still untapped."

"So be it." Megabyte said. Three claws ripped through the blue skin of the false Bob's skin, and he plunged them deep into her side. She cried out, dropping the knife, and Megabyte lunged to his feet, throwing her back through the doors and into Matrix, who caught her, staggered by this very abrupt turn of events. Enzo was screaming in horror as Megabyte the Virus ripped his way through his own disguise, bits of code coating the street. Holding his stomach as best as he could, the viral ran, as AndrAIa and Matrix tried to pull glass from the door from Dot's skin and hold the claw marks in her side closed.

A binome who had been unnoticed until that moment pulled out a communication device. "Turbo, come in! We have a situation!"

"Report!" Turbo barked from the communications device.

"Trojan virus in Mainframe, visual confirmed. Request medical pick-up for one Dot… umm, Matrix." The binome spy's voice dropped its professionalism, shaking. "I think a divorce is in order, sir, and I don't think that this system has the medical capabilities to handle this."

"Understood!" Turbo signed off and turned around. "I need a full medical team at Dot's Diner in the system Mainframe. Somebody put a full guard on Guardian 452- don't let him go anywhere near an exit from this compound." Suddenly, the mysterious communications call from Matrix's lady made a lot more sense…

In the diner, the binome was helping to apply first aid as well as he could, explaining,

"After Turbo got a call late one second warning him that there was a Trojan on the loose, and that Dot expected trouble, I was sent to keep an eye on the diner, knowing that if she found anything out, it would be handled from here."

Matrix looked at AndrAIa, who was still working steadily. "I knew Megabob was fake all along. I don't know what made her snap today, but Dot was the one who told me. He was threatening us if she didn't go along with his charade, and she was threatening him if he actually harmed any of us."

"Why didn't you-"

"Enzo Matrix, neither one of you would have believed that your hero had raped your sister and intended to kill you. And we both know it. I told you what I could to put you on guard and keep you safe."

"What about her safety? What about her sanity?"

"We both knew what we were doing."

"My sister could end file right now!"

"But Bob is proven innocent, and we're all alert now! We can hunt him down!"

At this intense nano, a portal opened right outside and an ambulance drove through. With an abrupt efficiency, Dot was bandaged, stowed inside, and the ambulance was back through the portal. AndrAIa turned away from her lover, knelt, and pulled the young Enzo into her arms, where he broke down, his innocence blasted away as abruptly as it had been the first time.


	5. Another Chance

Bob couldn't believe what he was reading on the screen. After this entire cycle, much of it spent with his nose two micros from the workstation screen, he had the answers he had been looking for. "It's so simple- that's what you meant by 'wasn't complete'. Parts of my code eroded in the web. The code simply isn't there anymore. If I can restore that code, I'll be, well, me again!"

He read over the report, his eyes narrowing, and then shooting wide. "Glitch, did you notice what's different? Appearance code, partly missing and voice code, completely missing. All memory, programming, and personality intact! I thought that my voice had changed because of the web gases I was processing- but the web riders had to reprogram my voice so that I could speak their language! They must have discarded the code! And my appearance- I did that myself! I deleted some of my visual guardian protocol so that I could alter my uniform to survive the data storms! If a web-creature ingested that code like the one that bit AndrAIa…" He paused. "Oh, Glitch, how am I going to find my code in the middle of all the data in the web?"

Glitch squawked at him.

"Wait a nano- the other one. He didn't appear until Hex opened a portal into the web. It was almost as if he were waiting for someone else to open a portal for him… and the exact timing- reappearing, but not until after I had… He was missing my memories, but he had the appearance and the voice exact- Glitch, someone stole my code! And he's in Mainframe pretending to be me! And Dot-!"

Snatching up the data analysis, he ran down the hall, ignoring the guardian who sent a tracer to the bottom of his boot. If they were following him, then that meant the false him had done something suspicious! He redoubled his speed, nearly crashing down Turbo's office door.

"Turbo, you gotta listen to me! I'm not a copy! I left some of my code in the web and forgot about it until I noticed what was in the data- I still have all my personality, memory, and programming, but I left my appearance protocol and voice modulator in the web when I adapted to survive! My code isn't different; it's just missing a few strands. A web creature is impersonating me!"

"You're a little late, son," Turbo told him. "We have had visual confirmation on a Trojan virus. Trojan viruses-"

"Operate by stealing code and impersonating a different format." Bob sank wearily into a chair. Turbo came around the desk and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry we ever doubted you, Bob."

"I can't go to Mainframe- if it's impersonating me, then there's no way to verify which is which. Oh, user, Dot's married to that thing. What happened to her? You said visual. What did it do to her?"

"She's still processing, but she's down in medical. She's been here almost an entire second."

He was speaking to an empty room, as the distraught guardian leapt to his feet and ran to the woman he loved.

Bob once more nearly took a door off its hinges as he burst into a room. The very first thing he noticed was Dot- and the physical change. His face darkened, and he grabbed the nearest medical personal by the shoulders.

"That's a viral infection. Get that thing out of her!"

Dot had turned to face the door when he had crashed in, and seeing who it was, she turned away from him. Seeing her pain, he released the orderly and came to her side. Gently, avoiding the bandages, he put a finger under her chin and raised her face to look at him. Knowing that she was blaming herself for the entire mess, he said clearly,

"Dot, he had my code. He did resemble me more than I did. You couldn't have known. I forgive you."

"But I betrayed you- I chose Megabyte over you!"

Bob shook as he repressed the rage crowding to the surface. He knew that if he let any anger at all show, she would think it was aimed at her and he would lose her forever. Allowing only one eyebrow to twitch, he said,

"I didn't figure out that code was missing and not corrupted until a couple of nanos ago. I thought it was a web-creature- Turbo just told me it was a Trojan. Dot, tell me what happened."

She obliged, but couldn't tell him about the night of the wedding beyond that Megabyte had told her everything and that he had insisted that she bear his heir "for insurance". Bob held her- gently, carefully, avoiding the wounds. He felt so different from Megabyte that she couldn't make any comparison between the two- and she couldn't bring herself to pull away, either. Finishing, she broke down and he just let her cry into his shoulder until she was done

"Dot, we can run an anti-viral program now. You'll be clean. You don't have to actually have his offspring. "

"Don't be so nice to me." She hiccupped, pulling away and swiping angrily at her eyes.

"He shut me out of your life twice. I won't let it be permanent!" He knew, somehow, that now was the time to give his emotions free reign. "Dot, things happen, horrible things! He wants to tear us apart, he wants us to be unhappy! Don't let him win! I've spent nearly two compilations of my processing time trying to get back to you. Don't you think that's long enough? I love you, Dot. I'm sure as the web not going to let a virus ruin that. If you leave me, we'll just be two miserable sprites. Once we get rid of him once and for all, I will make you happy. I will dedicate my entire formatting to your happiness. Please… please, don't ever shut me out again."

Dot looked at him for a long moment, and then turned to the orderly and said,

"I may be carrying the only intact specimen of Megabyte's original code that we have available. If you extract the code in one piece, we might be able to track him no matter where in the city he's hiding. Bob, where's my data pad?"

Silently he handed it to her, glad to see she was acting more like her normal self, but not entirely sure of what this meant for either her or for their future. She turned it to the communications mode and quickly tapped in Phong's IP.

"Principal Office."

"Phong, what was the insect you designed my mecha uniform and machine from?"

"It was called a ladybird. And what did I do after the PIDs were stolen?"

"Showed me what would happen to Mainframe if I gave up hope and stopped fighting. I see AndrAIa briefed you on the situation."

"Yes, my child. What would you have me do?"

"Is there anyone else in the Principal Office with you?" Bob asked, leaning in to look over Dot's shoulder.

"Ah, my friend, it is good to see you functioning again. No, Dot has been the only member of the staff in the principal office in seconds, other than the numeral Nine who has been in the adjacent office at all times."

"Can you scan to be sure?" Dot asked. Phong's head lowered and they could hear the tap of his fingers on his keys.

"It is only Nine and I."

"Good. I guess predictability is a bad asset to have at this point in time, but it's all we have. Close all the entrances to the Principal office. Call for Matrix, AndrAIa, and Enzo and wait until they get there as a unit. Open exactly one entrance and start evacuating the city into the Principal office in groups of three, with each group vouching for one another. Have each of them give you a question to ask the others, like we just did. Check off the PID codes to prevent any duplicates. Hold any duplicates or unverifieds separately to be dealt with later. We can hunt him down from there." Bob turned to look at Dot. "Was that more or less what you had in mind?"

"When Bob and I come, he will be the web version- this Bob. We'll have a copy of the virus's original code, and we can use that to track him. It may be several seconds. Can you wait that long?"

"We will have to, my child. The Principal office is closed. I will do the rest as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Phong. Keep us posted." Dot terminated the link, and looked at Bob. He smiled tentatively at her.

"Give me a chance?" He asked.

"I'll give you forever," She answered, and kissed him. He tasted the same as he had on the steps of the Principal office following the system restart- hesitant, careful, and loving. For the first time in cycles, Dot Matrix felt safe again.


	6. Uncertainty and Accusation

Mainframe had never experienced this amount of panic. Even during the system crash, the citizens had been sure that there was some way, some hope, somewhere. Back then, parties had broken out, celebrating life. But now, it had been revealed that their hero was the villain, and that the Guardian was in the supercomputer- the last anyone had heard of him, he had been completely corrupted on the roof of the principal office and perhaps deleted. There was no hope now. The was out of system, the guardian was inactive, and the super-hacker was away somewhere with a websurfer, oblivious to the current situation. That left a child, a renegade, and a game sprite as their only line of defense.

Groups entered the principal office nervously, glancing around constantly to make sure that they were surrounded by people they thought they knew- testing one another constantly to be sure. Enzo asked the questions that people invented to check their friends, while AndrAIa and Matrix watched everywhere with their weapons close to hand. Phong checked off every PID code that passed him. Unverifieds were sent away- perhaps to their doom.

"We need Mouse and the Surfer," Matrix commented. "We shouldn't be condemning our own people to wander the streets and become infected or be taken by _him._ We need someone who can guard them even if they are that viral scum…"

"Doubly then. At least we'd know he was somewhere in the group, even if we didn't know who," AndrAIa answered, then stepped forward, the trident making an ominous metallic scrape as it slid open in her hand. The desperate numeral who had been trying to push past Phong and Enzo gave her a startled look and pushed his way back through the crowd, disappearing into the city.

"Gun, targeting…" Matrix commanded. Expecting AndrAIa's disapproving look, he told her, "It's better to get a lock on him in case that was him. We can't afford to be compassionate now."

She finished in unison with him, "We can't afford any more mistakes." They looked at each other for a long moment, and she said, "I know, Sparky. I just- I hate this. I hate the suspicion and the hatred. Look."

She took his arm and pointed at the city. Desperate types were looting now, looking for anything they could take to barricade themselves in and hide. Fires raged through the Kit sector, and it didn't take the ears of a game sprite to hear the screams. She turned, hiding her face in his chest. He held her for a moment, then whispered,

"We have to be strong, AndrAIa. The citizens are going to see us like this, and then we'll loose what little moral the system has left. We have to make it look as if we have everything under control."

"Why don't the guardians help?" She asked, taking a defensive stance again and scanning the darting, anxious crowd. "What is it they have against Mainframe? Your sister told me what really happened in the Twin Cities accident- about how a virus escaped from the guardians through Wellman's portal and split into Hex and Megabyte. The guardians were nanos behind- why didn't they just clean it up then? Why bomb all of Mainframe over a web creature after ignoring two viruses for all that time? Why didn't any of them answer Bob's call for help when Megabyte merged with Hex? _Why aren't they here now_?" The last came out in a strangled hiss. They were networked to the Supercomputer now. And still, nothing was being done.


	7. Excuse me, Professor?

Bob had barely left her side during the entire time that she had been in the supercomputer. Dot had recently recovered from the surgery that had removed Megabyte's offspring from her body, and the fetus had been scanned and deprogrammed into a segment of code. She had been sickened at the knowledge that a child of her body was being deleted until Turbo had forced her to look at a vid of the thing. She no longer thought of that abomination as her child.

Dot, as soon as she had come out of her anesthetic had asked for Bob, disappointed that he wasn't at her side. The orderly had informed her that Guardian 452 had indeed been beside her from the time she came out of surgery until the other guardians had dragged him from the room to make him get some rest. He was currently, she was told, in class.

Dot hadn't realized that by "in class" they meant as a professor. She had edged the door open a crack to see Bob sitting casually on the edge of the teacher's desk, scanning the room as students took notes. Somewhere he had downloaded a new guardian uniform, replacing the one that had degraded. The scars shone softly in the overhead lighting, and he kicked a heel gently against the leg of the desk, though not loudly enough to distract the students. Glitch rested in its usual place on his wrist, and at first she noticed only that Bob had apparently polished his old friend. After a moment, she realized that the keytool had been repaired. Before she could wonder about that, Bob tossed a piece of paper noisily into the trash can, and the students looked up from their data pads. On the board behind him was written "Web Survival, Gua 293. Instructor: Guardian 452". Slipping off the desk, he paced back to the board, picking up a piece of chalk.

"We've already covered the basic ecology of the Web. Now then, before I start talking about my own adaptations to the Web, I want to hear some of your suggestions as to how one would have to physically protect themselves from the elements. Cadet McAfee?"

The young girl jumped and, to Bob's hidden amusement and Dot's frustration, blushed. "Well, um, first one would have to find a way to breathe, wouldn't they sir?"

"Correct," Bob said, writing on the board. "Among the webriders I encountered, every single one of them had a mask with an independent air supply. One can usually build a helmet out of discarded web debris, and some of my friends made theirs from the scales of a web creature. In fact, the software pirates that rescued me had plated their entire hull in the scales of web creatures." He turned, and with a quiet word to Glitch, projected a view of the Saucy Mare as she had been before, and then overlaid the schematics for the shell and armor that had been built around the ship.

Dot leaned against the doorjamb, weak from the surgery, but too stubborn to go back to the infirmary. She watched through the crack in the door, reminded of the seminar Bob had led on how to survive finding oneself in a game for the citizens of Mainframe. He had a natural charisma, and there didn't seem to be a bored face anywhere in the classroom. In fact, there were audible gasps when he touched his icon and downloaded the degraded uniform to illustrate how to change one's body-code to match the environment.

_He's happy here,_ She realized. _Bob is formatted to help people, but he took Enzo under his wing as a protégé early on, and now he's happy knowing that by sharing his knowledge he can help young sprites to survive horrible situations. He likes teaching! I shouldn't take him away from this- I should make him stay in the Supercomputer where he's safe and happy, and where the virals can't touch him…_

Towards the end of the lecture, she had edged the door open further to watch him better. He glanced up at the clock, then, as he was looking back across the classroom, his eyes met hers. Bob smiled, a radiant smile that lit his entire face, making him look young and refreshed, downplaying the scars and tiredness that had marked him since his return from the Web. Dot felt her eyes widen as she realized that she was the cause of that smile, and she tentatively smiled back at him. A couple students glanced over their shoulders, and a boy nudged McAfee and murmured,

"Hey, look! Teach has a girlfriend!"

"All right, Cadet Kaspersky," Bob said, his voice mock-stern. "Please keep the talking to a minimum, or I'll have to see what the Prime Guardian has to say about KP next week."

"Yes, sir!" The boy saluted. Bob shook his head and dismissed class, turning to erase the chalkboard as Dot dodged out of the way of chattering students who were gathering data pads and read-only files. McAfee gave Dot a wide-eyed glance as she went past, but Dot heard the girl whispering to a friend,

"He's a hero! He not only survived the Web, but rehabilitated a virus queen and fought off a Web Invasion! And he's a veteran of fourteen games!"

"I heard the Prime Guardian say his girlfriend is of a system and led a rebellion against an infected system." Kaspersky said, coming up behind the hero-worshipping young cadet. "They're fighting a supervirus in Mainframe right now!"

"Glitch, door," Bob said, and the keytool closed the classroom door behind the chattering students, then returned to his arm. He shook his head wryly.

"I was going to say that the war felt so far away in here, and then they have to bring it up." Dot said, her reluctance returning as she watched him straightening the room. He shoved the desk back into position and walked over, gently gripping her shoulders in his hands.

"Should you be out of the infirmary?" He asked, concern openly showing on his face. "I was going to come see you as soon as the class was over."

"Best medical services in the Net," She reminded him. "Bob, the supercomputer is your-"

"I'm coming back to Mainframe." He interrupted firmly, guessing where she was going with that thought. "Guardian Hewlett can take over my classes- he's sat in on every lecture and taken notes. I've debriefed him personally. I may have come to the Academy, but my home was a small system a lot like Mainframe. I haven't seen it in compilations- almost two entire years, Dot! Mainframe is my home now. I'm going to defeat Megabyte, rebuild my home, and do my utmost to keep my friends and my wife-to-be safe. And I will marry you, if I have to spend the rest of my processing time convincing you!"

He bent down and kissed her- gently, but persuasively. Dot found herself leaning up, trying to prolong the kiss as he pulled away. He put an arm behind her back as he always had, leading her gently out of the room. "Come on. Let's go see what Packard has for us. The sooner we can process this code, the sooner we can save our friends and family!"

A/N: Hewlett-Packard is a computer company. McAfee is an anti-virus software, and Kaspersky Laboratories makes software. I needed Guardian names…these weren't meant to be advertisements, and I wasn't laying claim to any original names, concepts, or ideas. Please don't sue me!


	8. Victory?

"My children, this thing you propose is dangerous! I cannot allow it!" Phong rocked backwards, looking up at the two sprites that stood opposite his desk. "Not only is Megabyte out there somewhere, but there is the risk of falling debris from the fires. I cannot permit this!"

"But Phong, someone has to take stock of where all of the unverifieds are! The sooner we find and contain Megabyte, the sooner we can rebuild Mainframe and let people go back to their everyday lives!" Matrix leaned forward, taking advantage of his larger height to try to intimidate Phong into seeing things his way.

"But…" Phong wavered for a moment, then straightened. "No, there are only two of you. If you become separated, one of you may be taken. That is why we were taking people in groups of three."

"We'll have Frisket with us," AndrAIa pointed out, her voice pleading. All turned at the semi-expected yell from behind them, resigned expressions already on their faces.

"And me! That'll be four people, which will make it even safer!"

"NO!" The three adults shouted in unison, as Frisket barked once sharply. However, Enzo's face did not fall. Instead, his chin came up and he met them all eye-to-eye.

"That _thing_ hurt my sister. I still have the Guardian protocol- we proved that when I came out of the game and changed into uniform. I can't just sit around here doing nothing while the other members of my family are out fighting the viral that hurt Dot. Not only does it go against my programming, but it's not right. I can't fight like Matrix, and I'm not programming-smart like AndrAIa, but I'm another pair of eyes, and Frisket can help protect me. I'm good at noticing things- remember that time we figured out that Old Man Pearson was Talon before everyone else? And Frisket and I outmaneuvered Megabyte before- in his own Torr!" He clicked his icon once, changing into his Guardian protocol. "Please, Matrix. I can't go to the guardian academy knowing that I let a virus run loose and attack my friends."

"Alright," Matrix sighed. "I don't like it, but alright."

What the three adults expected was a victory cheer. Instead, Enzo looked up at them, his jaw firm and his eyes blazing. "I won't let you down," He promised.

**A Second Later**

Kits sector was in ruins. Sector 31 was nothing but rubble. Baudway was only clear because it was too wide to completely cover over in debris. They had to stay at ground-level because of Frisket, but AndrAIa's ears could generally tell when something was about to give away. Matrix and AndrAIa had seen many devastated systems, had even seen Mainframe destroyed once before, but this was the first look that Enzo had ever had at such a sobering sight. His eyes were huge and pained looking, but he kept his lips folded to avoid giving way to the tears he wanted to let free.

They had now spent an entire second out in this mess. AndrAIa carried her handheld scanner now that Glitch had returned to Bob. Whenever they ran across a PID that was not safely logged at the Principal Office, she would scan for a duplicate in the city. Finding none, they would keep the binome with them until such time as they found three such scans, and then bring them as a group back to the Principal Office.

Eventually the desolation was too much. "Can we stop?" Enzo begged as they slowly checked the data dump. "I know where Old Man Pearson kept his restroom- I need to Output."

Matrix's eyes flashed annoyance for a moment, and AndrAIa put a hand on his arm. "It was been a second, lover," She pointed out, then turned back to Enzo. "Alright, but let's find a public restroom. Frisket and I can guard the door while both you and Matrix go in, and then you two boys can keep an eye out while I take Frisket in with me."

Enzo swallowed the bile that was rising, and nodded gratefully. After a few nanos of searching, they found an office that didn't seem to be too badly damaged. AndrAIa pulled out her trident, and motioned Frisket to sit. Enzo hurried into the restroom, ducked into the nearest stall, and began to hurl. Matrix shrugged and stepped over to a urinal. "You OK, kid?" He asked.

"Yeah," Enzo's voice was strangled. "Just give me a nano- it was starting to get to me a little, that's all."

"You don't have a nano," A shockingly deep voice said. Megabyte swung through the bathroom window, which Matrix hadn't noticed was open partway for air. Matrix swore and struggled to get himself sorted back out. "I've been watching you would be heroes almost all second, waiting for you to split up. It certainly took you long enough."

"Boys?" AndrAIa called from outside. Matrix started to call for her, but was forced to dodge as he saw the claws descending. One grazed his arm, drawing code, and Megabyte pulled back, concentrating on his claw. The code shimmered and vanished, and Megabyte slowly shrank to about Matrix's height, his skin taking on a greenish shade. Matrix took the moment to get his pants fastened again so that they wouldn't fall and trip him. The chain belt he yanked from his waist, holding it defensively in front of him. If he shot Gun in these close quarters, it might ricochet off the mirror and hurt Enzo, or might go through the door and hit AndrAIa.

"Matrix?" AndrAIa's voice was more concerned, and both sprites heard the door squeak on its hinges.

"Don't come in!" Megabyte yelled with a fair approximation of Matrix's voice. Enzo was as far back in the stall as he could get, staying out of the way, his eyes huge and terrified. "Watch the door! Make sure he doesn't get past me!"

The door slammed shut, and both viral and sprite knew that she had taken a defensive position behind it, waiting to clean up the aftermath of the fight- whoever won.

"You viral-" Matrix growled, lunging forward. The chain clanged on Megabyte's side, but the Trojan was faster than he had been the last time they fought, and once more he managed to get a claw into Matrix. Matrix growled in pain as he felt his code being absorbed, but being a higher-energy output than a binome, he clung to consciousness.

Now the same size and speed, the two fought viciously, fingers gouging, fists punching, kicks flying in all directions. Matrix pulled gun, past worry of hurting the others, thinking only of deleting his process-long enemy. Mega-Matrix knocked it away, and it skittered across the floor. The two hammered at each other mindlessly, and the chain lay forgotten near the door where it had fallen. They grappled, rolling, and it was nearly impossible to tell the difference.

"DrAIa!" Enzo screamed, finding his voice. "He's Matrix now! I don't know which is which!"

The door crashed open, and all three sprites looked up at the battle-ready game sprite. Without changing expression, she flicked her right hand once, sending her nails into the neck of the uppermost one. Her left hand came forward immediately, as if it were the same motion, and the nails of her left hand embedded themselves in the neck of the one on the bottom. They sank into a limp pile of limbs, and AndrAIa quickly strode into the restroom, pulling them apart. Enzo watched her wide-eyed.

"These weren't my lethal set, don't worry. Enzo, grab Gun and his belt. Frisket, sniff!"

Frisket obligingly took a whiff of both unconscious sprites, and looked up at AndrAIa. He whined once, shaking his head. AndrAIa swore silently.

"Of course. With the same code, they both smell exactly the same. I wish I had a way of containing them!"

"Did you say something about containment, sugah?" A very familiar voice said from behind AndrAIa. She turned to see Mouse and Ray standing in the doorway, the board leaning against the wall. Mouse gave a feral grin. "One line-stasis field, coming up."

She pointed the ring at the two unconscious Matrixes, surrounding them in the same energy she had encased Bob in once upon a time.

"Mouse!" Enzo and AndrAIa gasped. Frisket barked.

"DrAIa, sugah, I come to visit my old friends, and the entire system is in ruins, and your boyfriend has made a backup copy? What in the Net is going on around here?"

"The Web made Megabyte a Trojan virus. He came back as Bob to get revenge on all of us. Apparently, now he has Matrix's code, too."

"What about Dot?" Mouse gasped, looking aghast and furious at the same time.

"In the Supercomputer. He impregnated her, but she fought him and was wounded. The real Bob's there too- we haven't had any word from either of them."

"Well, this is a ruddy brilliant situation," Ray noted sarcastically. "How are we ever goin' to tell them apart?"

"We'll think of something, I'm sure." Mouse answered. Enzo quietly started to hand Matrix's effects to AndrAIa, who took the belt and shook her head.

"Keep Gun, Enzo. I don't want to gamble on which him wakes up first."

Enzo nodded, then turned, pointing the weapons at the two unconscious sprites. Suddenly, the asking questions routine seemed a childish safety ploy when actually in the room with the Trojan Megabyte. AndrAIa looked at Gun, something nagging at the back of her mind. She looked at their hips, and noted that while both of them wore the holster, there was only one Gun present.

"Wait a minute!" She cried. "He has code only! The gun is hardware! And the eye was wired in as part of the hardware of the gun, not as code! We just need to figure out which one has the eye!" _I didn't even notice the missing eye when they looked right at me! _She silently chided herself. _How could I be so __basic__?_

She and Ray knelt, peeling back the right eyelid of the two Matrixes as Enzo kept Gun trained on them, Frisket growled, and Mouse pulled out her katana.

"Over here! I've got him!" Ray said. AndrAIa looked down into an empty socket.

"And this is Megabyte!" She said. Mouse had just started to raise her katana, when the other eye opened. Mega-Matrix's hand smashed into AndrAIa's stomach, sending her flying back into Mouse, who dropped the katana to avoid hurting her friend.

"Don't move, virus! I'm warning you!" Enzo roared, sounding very much like his older self. Mega-Matrix heaved himself to his feet.

"Really, boy, you wouldn't shoot someone in cold blood." The virus sneered.

"He wouldn't, but I might!" Ray said from behind him, snatching up AndrAIa's trident. Megabyte looked around. The tines of AndrAIa's trident were pointed right at him, as was Gun. Mouse had retrieved the katana, and AndrAIa's hand was at chest level. Frisket growled low in his throat.

Turning, Mega-Matrix leaped into the air. His foot kicked out as various weapons discharged/sliced the air where he had been, connecting with the wall of a stall. Using it as a leverage, he crashed through the glass of the window he had entered through and ran off down the street, once more trailing code behind him.

"Cursors! He's getting away!" Mouse shouted, as they all ran up to the window.

"And he has Matrix's code," AndrAIa noted grimly. "I think he won this one."


End file.
